Peter Dunne Op-ed: Pink Thinking On The Rise

Last month I wrote about
the ‘pink think’ that is pervading a number of government
measures that are trying to change the way in which we think
about social norms.

I argued that reforms such as the
smoke-free legislation, aspects of the new child
guardianship laws, and proposed changes to the legal status
of marriage revealed a willingness by some elements within
Labour to impose their own politically correct values onto
everyone, yet with no clear mandate for doing so.

But it
is not just limited to social policy. Despite Labour’s
ability during the last parliamentary term to assure many
voters that it was neither a scary socialist nor a rabid
Rogernomics government, now that it has a second term, the
government is under pressure to deliver to its activists
through agenda-driven policy decisions.

It’s also been
behind a whole raft of policy decisions relating to the
economy, and is being driven by a union-inspired belief that
businesses take more than they give. Employment law is a
clear example.

New health and safety laws introduced
stress as a workplace hazard, meaning that bosses are now
liable for stressed out employees. Stress is not defined,
yet employers are supposed to be able to recognise it when
it occurs and deal with it, lest they are driven out of
business by grossly inflated fines.

And when it comes to
training workplace representatives about the new rules,
guess who got the contract? The CTU of course.

Now there’s
the Holidays Bill, currently before Parliament. Instead of
simply updating and simplifying a law long in need of an
overhaul, the government have taken the opportunity to add a
whole bunch of new entitlements for workers. For example,
the Bill extends sick leave provisions, so that an employee
can take a whole week off sick without providing any
evidence. Redistribution, rather than growth, is the real
agenda, and employers will be footing the bill.

Taxpayers
will also be hit. The Auckland District Health Board alone
has calculated that the new law will cost it at least $1.25
million a year in extra pay.

Surely these are matters for
employees to negotiate, whether individually or
collectively, with employers in good faith. The thought of a
return to the bad old days of state-imposed awards should
give us all cause to watch the outcome of the government’s
review of the ERA very carefully.

There’s a real danger
that in its attempt to “promote collective bargaining”, the
ERA review will actually tip the scales so far in favour of
the unions that people will be compelled to join. PSA
members in government departments are already getting extra
payments for their union’s ‘constructive approach’ to
contract negotiations.

How can freedom of association, a
fundamental human right, be maintained when exerting the
right not to belong hits you in the pocket? For too long,
successive governments have treated businesses as if they
were its money machine. Labour promised in 1999 that there
would be no tax increases beyond a lift in the top marginal
personal tax rate, but since that time, 17 additional tax
increases have been imposed in the guise of levies (such as
ACC, petrol excise, the flatulence tax) and the like,
sucking an extra $4 billion out of the economy.

Yet
private enterprise is also being shut out of opportunities
due to an ideological belief that there are some things that
only the state should do.

The new Corrections Bill rules
out private prisons, despite the success of the
privately-run Auckland Remand Prison, for this very reason.

Recently, the Wellington DHB refused the assistance of a
private hospital when it couldn’t cope with demand for
surgical services, even though it was offered at a much
lower rate. This meant that those patients had to wait
unnecessarily to be treated, and perhaps they’re still
waiting. Once again, ideology blinds the government from
losing sight of the idea that although the state should set
the standards of public service, it does not necessarily
mean that they are best suited to deliver on them.

It’s
time for the government to stop seeing the private sector as
the problem, or dare I say it, the enemy, and instead be
open to the idea that it should be part of a solution.

United Future opposes any government policy that is
driven by ideology rather than common sense. Unfortunately,
the cards that the voters dealt out at the election mean
that the government can usually turn to the Greens to
advance those parts of its social and economic agenda that
put the interests of one group of New Zealanders over those
of another.

But if United Future were not there, working
constructively with the government to moderate its
legislation and provide stability, then what sort of
government would we have?

I think the bickering between
Labour and the Greens over the past few weeks gives you a
pretty good
idea.

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